Commonly known as the morning-after pill, ECPs are birth control pills containing the hormone estrogen and progestin. The current treatment schedule is one dose within 72 hours after unprotected intercourse and a second dose 12 hours after the first.

Emergency contraception is a way of blocking the meeting between a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm, or if such a meeting has already occurred, of preventing a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the womb. Emergency contraception is not an abortion; it will not disrupt an already established pregnancy, nor does it harm a fetus if used by mistake early in an established pregnancy.

The use of birth control pills for emergency contraception was introduced by Dr. Albert Yuzpe, a Canadian obstetrician and gynecologist in 1974. Emergency contraception pills have been available in Europe and other countries since then, where they are packaged for just that purpose.

Emergency contraception is simply contraception only to be used in an emergency, and should not be substituted for ongoing contraception. There are two types of emergency contraception pills (ECP): Plan B and Ella.